15th anniversary of final destruction of East German mark

• 3,000 tons of banknotes were disposed of between March and June 2002
• Notes were stored by Staatsbank Berlin in a tunnel system near Halberstadt in 1990 after the monetary union
• KfW became the legal successor of Staatsbank Berlin

It is an unusual anniversary in Germany's currency history: the end of June will mark 15 years since the final destruction of the East German Mark. After the Deutsche Mark (DM) was introduced to the wallets and accounts of GDR citizens on 1 July 1990, banknotes of the East German Mark survived for over a decade longer, walled up in an underground storage near Halberstadt in Saxony-Anhalt. Only in mid-2002, KfW retrieved the last set of banknotes from the tunnel system and incinerated them in the BKB Buschhaus waste incineration plant.

The promotional bank was not itself involved in the currency reform. After Staatsbank Berlin merged with KfW in 1994, KfW became the legal successor and thereby owned the banknotes. After the monetary, economic and social union in 1990, the successor to the Staatsbank der DDR – Staatsbank Berlin – was responsible for the disposal of the invalid currency left over from the GDR. The coins were melted down for metal production and sold to industry. The banknotes, comprising a total of 3,000 tons, were stored in underground tunnels and left to rot. The Staatsbank der DDR had already done this before with success.

KfW conducted regular inspections at the site in Halberstadt up until 2001 which offered no doubt as to the security of the storage location. However, in July 2001, it was discovered that a break-in had occurred which brought to light that, despite the assumptions of the Staatsbank, only some of the GDR banknotes had actually decomposed. For security reasons and after several possible procedures had been investigated, KfW resolved to destroy the remaining banknotes once and for all.

In March 2002, KfW began to dispose of the GDR banknotes in the underground system at Halberstadt. Once the tunnel walls had been fully broken open, the money – mixed with sand and grit – was removed by wheeled loaders from the 300-metre-long tunnels. Underground, the banknotes were cleaned from sand and grit in a drum screen and then stored in containers with 33 m³ capacity. In total, 298 truck loads were transported to the BKB Buschhaus waste incineration plant where they were finally destroyed.

"We wanted to destroy the legend of a buried treasure," reasons KfW Head of Security Gerd Kugler, who planned and performed the procedure. Since the banknotes were removed and destroyed at the end of June 2002, the temptation no longer exists for anyone to make an illegal and dangerous break-in into the underground system near Halberstadt.

Today, a few sample bundles from this numismatic legacy can be found in the KfW Historical Group Archive.

KfW Historical Group Archive